Delectation
by Darynthe
Summary: Back to the first day in Twilight, Edward cannot control his thirst and decides to kidnap Bella to give free rein to his basest desires. Will Bella survive her ordeal? Rated T for the first chapters and later M for very graphic bloodplay and sexual theme
1. Chapter 1

**DELECTATION**

**By Darynthe**

Chapter 1

"The pleasure which may be taken in temptation , inasmuch as our souls have two parts, one inferior, the other superior, not unfrequently happens that the inferior part takes pleasure in a temptation not only without consent from, but absolutely in contradiction to the superior will. It is this contest which Saint Paul describes when he speaks of the "law in my members, warring against the law of my mind,"and of the "flesh lusting against the spirit."

_ Saint Francis de Sales, __Introduction to the Devout Life, __Part IV, Chapter 3_

**delectation** (_uncountable_)

1. Great pleasure; delight.

xox

Sin can arise only when your will comes into play. I remembered this piece of information that I read a long time ago from one of the old books that Carlisle kept in his well furnished library. And then, if sin had a name, if sin had a face, then sin would be called Bella Swan.

Yes, I had happily gone for over eighty years, virtuously living a life of boredom and endless application, never wanting to break the moral boundaries that my parents set as an example.

Thou shall not kill the innocent....

But how meaningless eighty years can really be when there comes the day when you realize that you are not strong, it was just that real temptation had never come face to face to you before. How much it filled me with anger and hatred to know that I was weak, with no power of will, just waiting for the right moment to jump and kill all the witnesses and then drink the nectar that ran in _her_ veins. The best moment that would allow me to kill the less possible people and yet enjoy to the fullest the final defeat of everything I considered the soul of Edward Cullen.

Now with the girl sitting not two inches from me, in the longest class of Biology in this side of hell, my mouth watering with venom, my eyes black with smoldering need, I was surprised that nobody actually started screaming and shouting, asking for help, because the monster should be showing in my face and awakening their pathetic survival instinct.

She peered at me from under her hair. Her eyes were dark brown, very expressive and together with her very dark hair, made a stark contrast with her perfectly porcelane skin. My breath began to accelerate and she looked away.

I felt something like fire go through my body making me tremble with need and the desperate, shallow hold I still had on my emotions was about to be let go the monster that shouted and growled to be let free just once, just this time. Please.

Mr Banner kept his upbeat and friendly tone and ordered us to go tonight to the forest and try to catch some insects for a analysis in the next lab class. I could hardly understand it. My mind worked very fast.

Would Alice see me killing all this people? If it was going to happen any minute now why she was not here, stopping me? It was something so big and important that I was sure that even her constant application to Jasper's, little slips wouldn't allow her to be oblivious to me for much longer.

I forgot not to breath and a new and scalding wave of smell hit me right in the head. It was painful. My hands started to tremble noticeably and I saw Bella turn her head but stop herself at last minute.

I wondered what it was she was thinking? Her head was impenetrable to me and I supposed that this somehow was part of the reason I craved her blood so much.

It wouldn't matter for long. I would just give in and be done with it. Carlisle would understand, he always did. He never recriminated me those years when I tracked criminals and human monsters and killed without mercy. Carlisle would forgive this too.

But would I ever forgive myself? Probably no. All the family would have to move today. Probably go into hiding for a long time as a manhunt would continue. Something like a hysteric chuckle menaced to escape my mouth as I considered that my face would be on all the news and TV and probably I couldn't be able to resurface for a few decades.

And I was the more angry then. What right had this girl to destroy my life? To shame me to my family, to make me hurt Esme? To destroy the lives we have so careful crafted?

But yet, nothing had happened. I had been in class for a whole of five minutes and I still haven't killed her or the other twenty children in the classroom.

I swallowed my poison again and tried to focus on a way to avoid the massacre. Think Edward.

I turned myself towards the window and held on tight the side of the desk. I forbid the lungs to breath and closed my eyes to try to dissipate the strong pull of deadly absolute desire.

It would be later today. I would wait until school was over and I would take her somewhere else to commit the act. I would leave no traces that would lead her to me. Nobody would find her body ever.

I needed to get my mind off the idea until the time came. I risked losing it otherwise. The most important thing was not to draw attention so no suspicion would be on me.

The hour dragged eternally. But at long last was over. I was out of my chair as a spring and I could hear the girl gasp in what I assumed was either fear or indignation at my behavior. I stopped in my tracks, trying to walk slower, to look more normal. I tried to smile, but it was physically impossible.

Instead I turned my head and locked eyes with her. A strange pull, different and similar to the thirst warred then in me. What was she doing to me? Her eyes were wide and wondering, she blinked a couple of times and swallowed, turning away her head.

The moment lasted a second only and yet it shook me again with sudden temptation to kill her then and there.

But then she passed me by in her way to the next class.

I walked to Spanish, resisting the need to skip class and just devote myself to my senseless longing and thirst. However, Carlisle face came to me and gave me enough will power to continue and give absolutely no reason for anyone to suspect me the next day.

I couldn't forget her smell. Emmet looked at me funny. I avoided his gaze but carefully looked into the textbook. I didn't want anyone in my family to talk me out of my madness. I still felt the pain and it had me almost whimpering. The bell for this class came too, eventually.

"Emmett, I think I need a little fresh air, is it Ok if I give you the key of the Volvo and you drive everyone home?" I managed to growl.

"Sure Edward, you look a little dead today, eh? Maybe I can join you."

"No," I said a little too harsh for seeming normal.

Emmett just rolled his eyes and shrugged it. The soonest I was out of Alice reach the better. Now everything depended on my not meeting other humans or vampires and nobody else needed to get hurt. And more importantly nobody could stop me in my now inescapable destiny of killing Bella Swan.

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Author's note: please leave feedback. I accept suggestions and constructive critique.


	2. Chapter 2

**DELECTATION**

**By Darynthe**

**Chapter 2**

Now that the decision was taken I felt some sort of relief in the thought that maybe, just maybe, conscience wouldn't pull me as much and torture me as much as it had in the last two hours. Conscience was one of the many aspects in which Bella Swan could torture me.

Her intoxicating temptation was so sweet that just to think, just to allow in my mental eye the mere glimpse of what was to come later today was enough to send me into throes of forbidden pleasure so strong that it melted with pain.

That was enough, as the will in my heart was there now to allow me to fall into the sin I was to commit, to allow it to take my heart and conduct my feet towards the parking lot.

I let myself now hear and be overwhelmed by the thoughts of those other three hundreds kids who were finishing their school day and preparing to leave. If I was to hunt here today it was for the best that I knew everything that was going on.

This is how I saw that Bella was coming from the other side of the hall in company of Jessica and Mike Newell, who apparently were her new best friends.

Mike's thoughts were populated by graphic sexual fantasies that had Bella in his car later today. I frowned. First, the content of his fantasies made me angry without a single reason, if I took into account that my own purpose was to kill the girl in less than an hour.

But the practical reason for my fury was that somehow maybe he was going to see her later in the day and that would certainly complicate things unnecessarily.

I concentrated on his and Jessica's heads.

_Will she get lost already?_ Mike thought about Jessica. So he wanted to have Bella to himself.

I followed at first at enough distance so they wouldn't notice me, but I was hard pressed fearing Alice and the rest would be close soon. I didn't need to lose my focus, so I hurried and passed them by in a few strides, in direction of the main street.

I could see that Bella's attention and eyes were turned to my retreating back, as I scanned Jessica's thoughts.

_Again checking out Cullen?__ This one is stubborn I will give her that at least. Didn't I tell her already not to lose her time, that he wouldn't notice her in one million years? Well so much the better, I will enjoy seeing her heart broken and if something at least that would make her ignore Mike._

I could tell Jessica was bothered by the extra attention Mike and the other boys were giving _the girl_. Well there something for the first time in which she and I agreed. The thought bothered me a lot and I didn't want to analyze it any more.

"Ok guys, guess I will see you tomorrow." Bella turned to both her friends and formed a small shy smile.

"Bye! See you tomorrow at lunch hour," said Jessica heading towards her car.

Mike stayed by and asked before he lost his nerve, "Bella, I was wondering if you are planning to go catch some insects later today?"

"Yeah, I don't want to fail in our first homework but I have to admit the idea is gross. It will be easy though, my home is right in front of the forest." Her eyes wondered around checking all the new settings absentmindedly. I saw a small frown in her eyes that Mike failed to recognize as her mind being elsewhere.

I wondered why she didn't ask anyone about my behavior earlier that day. I realized that if she did, probably my whole plan would simply never work. I would have to get rid of that witness too, at least. For a moment I studied how heartless and selfish I was. Yes, if she did, God knows it wouldn't stop me.

Fortunately either she hadn't noticed or she kept to herself her thoughts, making her a more cryptic creature than I first thought. My curiosity started increasing as my thirst burn my throat and sent pain to every organ.

"Oh, well I was planning to go to a small river bank ten minutes away from Forks, there is a very beautiful well there, maybe you would enjoy it," Mike didn't give up.

I saw Bella think of the proposal and then purse a little her lips before answering,

"Sounds great but have loads of homework and need to prepare dinner for dad too. Thanks, maybe in the next assignment." She smiled to Mike now, kindly and he seemed a little entranced by it.

The boy stammered something and finally left her alone.

I let my breath go. She was making things so easy.

I turned into a small recess where I was no longer in sight and simply started running like the wind. I knew exactly the road she would take home. Everybody knew Chief's Swan house.

My plan was simple enough.

When I was maybe three kilometers away from her home I just hid behind a tree and waited for her red disaster of a truck to show up in the distance.

"If someone up there is looking out for you this is the best time for them to come and stop me." I said although she was not there to listen. It was just me and her now. A big heavy lump in my throat made me realize how nervous I was.

It would be any minute now.

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Notes of the author: Thanks for reading, and for the reviews. Please keep reviewing, giving ideas and the update will come sooner!!


	3. Chapter 3

**DELECTATION**

**By Darynthe**

Chapter 3

I didn't belong with humans. Whatever made me think I did? Standing here in the forest as the hunter I was, I realized how much of a dreamer Carlisle is; I wondered how he ever sold us the entire preposterous dream that we could fit in.

Not me. And for a moment, the idea of a future where nothing held me back from being a monster scared me and shook me thoroughly. That was not me. It was just this once. Her blood sang to me.

I looked around and found a suitable prop. It was a relatively old pine tree, which I uprooted without a second thought. The swashing sound of earth and breaking material whipped the calm of the forest. A few sparrows took flight with acute cries of distress. I kneaded the organic and coarse material of the bark into my hands.

I moved the heavy and old log the whole one hundred meters until I was standing on the highway. I was hoping, praying, that no other car would come before the girl.

The highway was slick and reflective from the earlier rain. Everything smelled like leaves. I deposed the tree across, closing any escape for her, and then went back to my hiding place, adjusting a little my jacket as if I could feel cold.

If I had a heart, it would have been thumping in my chest, sending adrenaline through my body. Then again, if I had a heart, I wouldn't be setting up a trap to attack and kill the girl.

No, maybe if I had a beating heart, I would be just as any of the anonymous little guys, dreaming of her. Unattainable and yet bound by more conventional hungers? Then, maybe not. I have never felt those—and, most likely, I was simply incapable of them.

What would I not give to be a mere mortal now and not the weak monster I was. A monster whose bloodlust was overpowering reason and human instinct.

Bella Swan. Beautiful swan. What befitting a name. Saying it caused me pleasure. I imagined her a lovely bird, with her white feathers, showing off her perfect charm in the water, moving as a floating vision, dainty, swift, peaceful.... and then, the blood, red, alive, warm and intoxicating falling and turning that soft white plumage of tender fluff into something even more beautiful in its tragic climax. Bella.

I could hear now the sound of the radio, coming out her open window. She was an eighties fan? The ridiculous thought pulled at my heart for some reason. My throat closed as when I was a human and tears were about to rise to my eyes.

I wasn't a human anymore and tears didn't allow for a temporal liberation anymore. I missed that. All my liberation was violence. That was all that was left for us. I wondered how the same God who created Bella could have allowed for me to exist.

Closer now.

"Oh crap!" she said when her eyes took notice of the huge obstacle laying in her way. Her voice came clearly as if I had been sitting next to her.

The truck complained with a cracking noise as Bella forced it to stop too suddenly. I saw her sigh resignedly, tired, and then she looked unsure as if to get down the car or just turn around and go back to Forks.

My brain worked in a thousand directions at the same time. Now. Attack now, said the monster.

Another side gnawed viciously at me, with curiosity to see what she would do next.

My eyes were fixed on her reactions and that part of me still capable of making a moral argument wished with all his heart that she would just decide to turn around. That tiny part of the good Edward that was still alive begged "Come on, go back. Don't get out."

_He_ didn't want to kill her.

But, I, the monster Edward, was tormented to taste that glorious blood that pulsed in her veins, to vanquish the thirst that tortured me and then give in to that perfume that was imprinted in my brain and would follow me for the eternity. An eternity that would be my punishment when I could no longer find it ever again. And yet the monster also wanted the violence. He delighted in the idea of protracting this for eternity, enjoying her forever even if this was supposed to end in a second of infinite violence.

Bella turned to her side and opened the door. She peered absentmindedly towards the shadows where I hid and then simply got down.

I observed transfixed, unable to move and attack. She was looking for something under the seat, finally extracted three orange triangles with some difficulty.

I chuckled in the middle of the whole insanity. The girl was going to set up signs for the other drivers. That was why she didn't turn back to Forks as I knew it was her first instinct.

Bella Swan was a good, responsible person.

And I was a detestable murderer. A sad excuse for a human being; I represented a pathetic excuse for a vampire too.

Her back was turned to me as she walked determinedly in the opposite direction of the tree. I couldn't help myself and walked slowly and silently into the asphalt. My feet didn't make any sound discernable to her. I waited patiently for her to finish, inwardly trembling with the bloodlust that was now again in full force as the wind was against her.

I clenched my fist. I should do it now and finish it without her suffering, sparing her that at least.

Yet my feet couldn't move. I was paralyzed.

She turned and upon laying eyes on me, she was visibly startled. She blinked a couple of times and moved her head to her right, finally squinting as if she thought she had summoned me out of her mind or of thin air. She kept her breathing even, and one controlled gasped emerged from her nose.

But it was her eyes that really kept me in lock. They stared at me incredulous, dubious, a little unfocused.

What was she thinking? Did she see the resolution and incontrollable deadly need in mine?

She turned her head violently around, trying to locate my car. She couldn't find anything and her eyes returned to mine expectant. Now puzzled. But, yet not afraid.

And that was it.

Had she been afraid, had she been even slightly fearful of meeting the strange freaky classmate who had looked at her not two hours ago with eyes of hatred and animal ferocity, had she screamed or reacted in any way a normal human being would when one of us was close to them, intent on killing, and their survival instinct kicked in, then Bella would have been dead in half a second.

The monster would have overridden everything in me and gotten her, drank savagely from her throat.

But she just questioned me during those endless long seconds with her wide dark eyes, making me fall and swim in her. My breath quickened and then I could smell the adrenaline jumping in her veins.

Was it fear now? And yet she just stared at me and refused to give up and break what our eyes were saying.

She noticed briefly my balled fists and I finally saw understanding dawning on her expression. It was the tension emanating from me that told her what my intention was. Maybe it wasn't completely clear to her. Of course it wasn't.

What was I to do? I wanted to go away--to run, to escape, as if it was her who was haunting me, she the one intent on destroying me.

Instead I jumped at her.

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Author notes: Thanks to my new beta Leon McFrenchington who is the fastest editor in the whole planet Houston. Please take thirty seconds to review and maybe throw in suggestions of what you see coming!!!!


	4. Chapter 4

**Delectation **

Chapter 4

It was only then that I knew myself.

I was 17 years old; I had lived the most unremarkable life, void of extremes of sorrow, of happiness, even denied any agony of self-doubt. That was the life of Bella Swan. Maybe some people would think that being happy in my commonplace life made me unsuitable and undeserving. Everybody aspired to great passions.

Hell, I didn't care. I hadn't care what others thought of me. Self-sufficiency allowed me to be content and experience a subdued, but continuous, joy in the everyday. Even now, in Forks, coming to a great upset of my routine, moving to a new life, having to find a way to live with Charlie, didn't really represent a challenge. I knew my strength would always be enough both for me and for the support my parents needed from me.

However, the events of my first day in Forks High School, and especially the strange meeting with Edward Cullen in the morning, had been sensed inside me, in some secret recess of my soul, as something like a stop in that simple line of destiny that had been mine. A moment in life canvassed as a milestone, although nothing should have given it such a momentous importance. Meeting him didn't have any importance from any reasonable logic point of view.

Nothing but his eyes.

Searching, knowing, flowing with something that was barely self-contained. I thought that those eyes shone with hate. Why such a great intensity for me, a stranger? Not a single word had crossed between us. Nobody noticed me in Phoenix.

Then maybe I didn't live long enough to understand what can prompt hate. I had never hated anyone; the range of my emotions, while varied, had not included such a tragedy or stupidity that would vouch for my hating a fellow human being.

More importantly, how was I supposed to react to illogical gut hostility? He had given off, during one full hour, a strong negative current that flew through his tension, like a wire, into my flesh and bones. It was totally a physical thing. Couldn't be my imagination.

And it wasn't.

I knew it when I turned back to get into my truck and drive back to Forks after having found a tree in the desert road. I am not a town girl, I hardly could tell if such a thing is normal but my mind was so busy otherwise with thoughts of _him _as to wonder too deeply.

Upon raising up and turning, I saw him. Somehow he had materialized out of my regrets and disturbed musings and was standing in the flesh, over that reflective, damp road. I could see his form mirrored softly in front of me. Saying I was shocked was an understatement.

Why was he here? I turned around to locate his vehicle, to find a clue of what was he doing here and then the initial shock turned into wonder. His eyes were blacker than coals, and burned just as painfully.

There was no car in sight. I locked my stare with his; I didn't know other way to react. I wouldn't be the one to declare defeat by pronouncing any word of acknowledgement that would mean weakness after what had happened at Biology hour.

His face was so beautiful and final. It hit me then. It was the eyes and that stance of a hunter. Maybe he had been too at class but I didn't know then. I had been just another student in a normal school. Nothing animal about that. Everything was human and normal by the most exacting and rigorous definitions of it.

The strength was so blatant in all of his frame, his hands, his set mouth that fascination caught up with me. I remembered then a time in history class when the teacher had mentioned why some ancient cultures had made gods out of ferocious animals of the forest. It was because they were bearers of death. So was the case with the snake, the bear or the lion.

He was like such an incarnation of such a legend god now.

Although it was barely midday I felt some darkening sinister shadows coming over us, projecting him even father towards me and then I knew with solid knowledge of full maturity, with something that should have been shame and wasn't, that I wanted whatever could be coming to me now, if it was from _him_.

Doubt seemed to cross his eyes for a moment as if he was set uneasy by something he saw in my eyes. But it was gone the next moment and I then admired the gracious feline jump he did towards me.

And then I laughed.

I couldn't help it. God knows I am not exactly Miss Sense of Humor, mine had always been rather inopportune, dark hilarity, something that nobody understood or cared to understand, it really took much work to laugh at what I usually did.

But wasn't it so funny that I was about to be killed in my first day in Forks, at seventeen years old and that what I actually could muster as emotion was a shock of pleasure and excitement at the prospect? It was worth a last laugh and I did it freely and joyfully. Yes, I hadn't known myself until then.

Many things happened at once. I saw his face blurred coming over me. I lost the sensation of the floor under me, which of course was a very common thing to happen to and not too upsetting. But was surprised me most was the beauty and control of his movement. He had such control over it that I saw that my laughter cut him halfway in what should have been merely the half second it took him to cross the distance between us.

We landed in a mash of legs and arms, my laughter steer clear and crystal in the silence of the forest. I felt his strong hands taking hold of my shoulders to control my shaking frame that was in some subdued attack of hysterics. His weight was solid like a inanimate object, muscles too strong, corded like marble but I could not draw any comparison to any other male before him. I could only compare it with my own softness.

Our eyes met again, his brow was knitted in a battle of many subtle muscles, his mouth taut, and I noticed his fast breathing, his Adam's apple going up and down and I knew he was barely containing the upcoming moment. It was a need that was tearing him apart.

A numbing but soothing kind of weakness spread through my limbs and those points where his body touched mine were painful by the mere contact. I was sumiting to a tension I had never felt before.

I looked at him pleadingly. But my eyes didn't plead for release. I knew that shocked him even more. A whimper escaped his mouth as his face went down to my face and softly touched the skin of my right side.

It wasn't a kiss by any definition of the word. He slid down, touching me with his lips. Tracing an indirect road. He stopped at the valley of my throat and the sweetness of his breath and the moment made me shudder in violent pleasure.

I wanted to say his name, to kiss him, my executioner, the strangest thing,

I could feel then the slow baring of his lips. His growl, his humid warmth of saliva met the exposed fragility he found there. I could feel his teeth now. I began to tremble. His eyes were wild with uncontrolled excitement.

The moment was violently broken by a piercing shriek resounded in the mountain. It was pained and angry and concerned and urgent.

"Edward, no!!" It was a feminine voice, harsh out of sheer panic. "Edward!"

I felt him shake his head as if taken away from a waking dream and he shot his eyes in the direction of the scream.

He held me firmly, making impossible an escape that I didn't dream of and gathered my weightless body towards his chest. I could see very little for a few moments and then I knew he had me in his arms and I felt the deep animal growl that came from his chest without actually going out of his mouth.

I couldn't see anyone but some blurring, like I imagined was the visual of the wind in a tornado, which came straight to us. Then out of the nothing, the figure of Alice Cullen materialized ten meters away from us.

"Put the girl down, Edward," she said pleadingly. I didn't know her at all, but even I could sense in her voice the cold and hurt edge that was at the same time a threat.

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Notes: Thanks again to Leon McFrenchington my beta. Sometimes I think he is not human but a vampire because of his editing speed. ;)


	5. Chapter 5

**Delectation **

Chapter 5

Time seemed to stretch in a bizarre way. Edward and Alice Cullen were staring at each other. It was unnerving even in my state of shock. Then, he started talking as if he was replying to something she had said but I hadn't heard.

"It is too late, Alice," he said with finality. "Where were you earlier today when I needed you to stop me? When she needed you?"

That made Alice shake visibly in what I thought seemed like shame or guilt.

"Yes, I know. I am always the perfect one. Never doing anything wrong. And no, I am not asking you to take special care of me. I am just informing you that it is too late now."

She didn't reply except with a congested expression of her face.

"I know. That is why I waited to do it here. Just for you all. Because I do love you all. You have no idea what it took me not to do it in school. I will find a way so nothing can be traced back to you," he continued.

"Yes, I will be gone. Don't try to find me."

This monologue and their reactions were even stranger than his attack had been. It was as if I had entered into the Alice in Wonderland story. Except I am not a fan of that book, it was too surreal for my taste And I knew I wasn't dreaming, his long muscled arms were like granite and more real than anything I had felt before. His strength was deadly but inexorably binding.

I made a last conscious effort and tried to push him away and extricate myself from his hold. He felt it immediately because the steel band of his hands just hold me more firmly and his breathing came out faster.

"Please let me go," I said in an assertive voice. I frowned at him as he turned his eyes to me.

He didn't answer.

Alice suddenly started speaking again. "Talk to him Isabella. Talk to him! Beg him!"

I heard his grumble again and a slight snort coming from him.

"Alice, I am doomed. Cursed. Will you understand it is too late? I have to do this now. There is no other way, for her or for us."

My eyes wandered around and then I saw that other figures materialized out of nowhere, as flickers of a fire that come and go with the light and shadows. His brothers came into sight behind Alice.

"Edward, what the hell is this? Alice, what is he doing?" the large brother said, seeming to find the situation more curious than alarming.

"Stay back, Emmet. Edward is going to make a very bad mistake," Alice told him, pushing her hand towards him as if to stop him.

"Well, why don't you let him. It is not like he's had any fun, like, _ever_."

The other sister, the blonde, slapped him into silence.

"Don't you see he is putting us all through hell? Stupid idiot. Let that girl go now; if you kill her, they are going to go after us like dogs!" she told Edward.

It was in the middle of the reproach that I felt it. Something hit us like a stone wall. It projected me out of his arms and into the grass with an obnoxious sound of disjointing limbs. My limbs.

My head hit the terrain pretty badly but when I had recovered I saw Edward and his other brother, Jasper, locked into a fierce battle, rolling over themselves for dominance. Jasper tried to hold Edward hands and put his knees over his legs. Edward seemed to be matching his strength and even containing himself not to cause damage.

Neither of them talked and the others didn't bother to help.

I saw my chance, got to my feet unsteadily and ran as much as I could run, down the road, trying to find someone who belonged to the real world and could take me away back to safety.

I didn't make it very far. I fell all over my right arm at the third step I turned; and I saw, out of the corner of my eye, how Edward looked at me enraged, his teeth bared, growling like an animal whose prey was escaping. I felt the blood pooling from my shoulder where I had hit a rock.

I swallowed the lump in my throat and looked back. I would make it; I was now scared--the shock was gone and the adrenaline rush helped me to jump and start running. Nothing in my body was broken so I had a decent chance if Jasper managed to control Edward.

From behind, I could hear the sound of something hitting and breaking the bark of the trees, as if a body had been projected. I didn't turn to see, most likely fearful of turning into a salt statue if I did.

_Run, Bella. Run! _

It was the vision of my dad that gave me the strength. I could envision that future where I wasn't there for Charlie. Somewhere in the world, me, his daughter, giving him a reason to go on every day. I loved my dad and I didn't know how he would go on without me. Renee, yes. She would continue, she was strong and independent; she loved this world passionately; she was prepared for anything. She had Phil.

Charlie only had me. He would find Edward and kill him. I couldn't let Charlie kill anyone. I should get out of this and shut up about it to protect Charlie.

I tripped again in a root. "Crap!"

I was never going to make it to Forks without my truck. Why didn't I think of using it instead of running? But going back was unthinkable. _ Stupid._

I decided to go into the forest, where I knew my chances were so much better that he wouldn't find me. Of course, I wouldn't find myself the way out either but I would think about it later.

I tried to hush my breathing, so it wouldn't sound like the panting of a wounded deer. It was a considerable effort; I wasn't fit for running anymore than I was for fending or walking in a high wire.

"He won't find me," I thought, and then, "Why me?" I was appalled.

The trees made it very dark. I thought of finding a hiding place soon.

I needed more time, more space, I fell on my knees when the terrain started to become uphill and crawled, hurting my hands with the tiny pebbles and roots. Tears washed down my cheeks with weakness. I didn't turn back to see if someone followed me.

But then I could feel it even without looking. He was there, behind me. Staring at me. I gasped and choked a sob, terrified. Electricity passed in waves through my limbs. That feeling I had all day and was every time new and terrifying.

I got up to my feel and shouted without turning: "No Edward!"

But I knew it was no use. In a fraction of a second, I felt him grasp me from behind and hold me in his arms again, strongly against his chest and then the whole forest went blurry with a strange feeling of antigravity. That feeling that pulls you in all directions, like when you go in a merry-go-round.

I was going fast, as if we were falling down a cliff, except that I knew we were instead covering the terrain of the mountain at what should be the same velocity of a sports vehicle. He was carrying me, running so fast that my insides felt compressed and I knew I was about to faint just before everything went mercifully black.

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Notes : Thanks for the reviews! And thanks to Leon for the editing once again. I would plug him but I would then get jealous that someone else is going to get him as beta too. Yeah, I am mean and selfish. :P


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